


Curiosity

by nhasablog



Category: The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue Series - Mackenzi Lee
Genre: Aromantic, Asexual Character, Fluff, Gen, Tickling, slight spoilers to the lady's guide
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-25
Updated: 2018-11-25
Packaged: 2019-08-29 10:04:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 826
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16741936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nhasablog/pseuds/nhasablog
Summary: Talking to her older brother about a kiss she shared with a certain friend of hers isn’t how Felicity wants to spend her day, but Monty ropes her into it anyway.





	Curiosity

**Author's Note:**

> I’m a firm believer that Felicity is on the aro and ace spectrum (hey, Mackenzi Lee practically said so!) and I tried to incorporate it as best as I could without the characters having a name for it (1700s and all). I do believe she’s demiromantic though, so I might be hinting that as well.
> 
> Warning: This contains slight spoilers for The Lady’s Guide to Petticoats and Piracy (might not make any sense though), so I’d skip this if you haven’t read it yet but intend to.

“Did you really kiss?”

Felicity could pretend all she wanted that she had no idea whom Monty was talking about, but her flaring cheeks gave her away the minute she met her brother’s gaze. “We did.”

His smile, although smug, was a little puzzled. “You’ve never struck me as the type to be into ladies.”

“I’m not.”

“And yet.”

“I  _told_ you,” she said, exasperated. “We did it purely to establish that kissing is not my favorite thing.”

“It’s different when you have feelings for someone, you know.” Monty said it so softly, eyes on Percy who was sitting across the room, that Felicity had to roll her eyes. “Though I must say, if I didn’t know better I’d suspect you were harboring a bit of an infatuation with her.”

“Sim’s my friend.”

“So was Percy. Didn’t stop me from pining over him for years before we got our crap together.”

Percy let out a low laugh, giving away the fact that he could hear them perfectly. Felicity felt a bit embarrassed at having this talk around them both, but she figured it was better than to have this conversation with only Monty present.

“Seriously,” Monty continued, suddenly serious, which was alarming. “I know something like this can be… difficult.”

“Monty.”

“I know society doesn’t accept it, but I promise you it’s all right.”

“Monty.”

“If you want to talk about it-”

“ _Monty_!” Felicity jabbed her hand into his ribs, making him recoil. “I’m not smitten with Sim.”

He rubbed at the spot she’d aimed at. “Well, you’re  _something_.”

“I trust her.” Admire her, respect her, completely in awe of her. “You know I don’t care about those sorts of things.”

He was frowning at her. “But you’re not a kid anymore. And books can’t satisfy  _all_ your needs.”

Felicity covered her eyes with her palms. “I am  _not_ having this conversation with you. Romance and- anything physical doesn’t interest me.”

“All right. I guess I’m not one to talk.”

“I think that makes perfectly sense, Felicity.” That was Percy, and Felicity felt him sit down on her other side. When he’d gotten up, she didn’t know. “But, whatever you feel about Sim, I can tell the two of you have a special bond.”

“We do,” Felicity said, dropping her hands. “I- well, I can see myself being happy with her. I mean,” she added quickly. “Not like that. I don’t think. I mean, I can see myself being happy with her and Johanna and the two of you and the crew of Eleftheria and not feel like I’m missing anything.” It was a bigger declaration than she’d been prepared to make, especially with Sim and Johanna somewhere above deck.

Monty crossed his arms. “Felicity Montague. Did you just confess your love to us?”

She rolled her eyes. “Don’t get used to it. And I mostly meant Percy.”

Monty gasped, and, having grown unused to being around her and her disdain to physical affection of any sort, otherwise he’d probably have known better, poked her in the side with much more gentleness than she’d done to his ribs a moment earlier.

She’d deny having shrieked - would much rather call it an exclamation - but she couldn’t deny basically flying into Percy’s lap in order to get away from her brother. “Stop,” she demanded, even though Monty had made no move to do it again.

He was watching her in surprise, mouth slightly agape, until a grin found his lips. “My, my, Felicity. I never knew you were so-”

“Another word and I’m amputating your thumb in your sleep.”

He paused, scowling. “Why my thumb?”

“It’d be the cleanest part to get rid of yet bring a lot of trouble into your daily life.”

“I never knew you were so cruel, darling. All because I accidentally tickled you.”

Percy, whom Felicity was still leaning against because she didn’t trust Monty in the slightest, laughed. “Imagine if you had to come up with a new threat each time I tickled you, Mont. You’d run out of them in a week.”

“Oh, do be quiet.”

“Being ticklish is part of our survival instincts,” Felicity said. “It lets us know if anything unwanted is crawling on our skin.”

“And it gets us laughing like madmen and scaring the unwanted things right off,” Monty added, wiggling his fingers in the air. “But let’s not lie here, Percy is just as sensitive as any of us.”

Felicity tried to flee before she could get caught between the oncoming chaos, but Percy, the traitor, kept her at his side as a shield, which didn’t deter Monty who jumped right onto them anyway. This would be a long day, and they hadn’t even reached the sea dragons yet.

She kind of didn’t regret it, though she wasn’t overly pleased at the prospect of getting tickled. Fortunately, Percy showed her mercy and let her go, and she left the two of them to fend for themselves.

**Author's Note:**

> Here's my [tumblr](http://nhasablog.tumblr.com)


End file.
